What Your
Score Means:
For men, your
total possible score is 28. For women, yours is 46. For men
or women, the higher your score, the more likely you have estrogen
dominance. And, before we go on with what that is and what to do
about it, remember that it's the cluster of symptoms, the
combination of them,
and not the existence of any one of them, that indicate a
problem, and that problem is called estrogen
dominance.
What is
Estrogen Dominance?
Estrogen
dominance is a term John Lee, M.D. created to refer to an all too
common and potentially dangerous type of hormonal
imbalance. In
short, it
is
too much estrogen relative to the amount of progesterone.
(See: John Lee, M.D. and Virginia Hopkins.
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You
About
Menopause, Warner Books, New York,
2004, p. 42-43.)
Why is
Estrogen Dominance Dangerous?
Estrogen is a
hormone that tells cells to grow. Too much means too much
growth,and that's not a good thing. Bodily environments that are too estrogen rich are
giving the signal to grow, grow, grow, and that signal is picked up and
used by viruses, bacteria, fungi and all manner of creatures which can
make their host extremely ill. Cancer cells, too, get the grow message.
Additionally, a dominance of estrogen blocks thyroid hormone, so
that you can have all the symptoms of low thyroid while thyroid blood
test results come back normal. (In estrogen dominance your body
prevents your thyroid from allowing your metabolism to run any faster
to keep you from having problems that are far
worse).It's also associated
with a number of diseases, including breast cancer. Then,
estrogen increases blood clotting and therefore increases stroke
risk. For these and
many more reasons, it is important to reverse this condition as
quickly as possible.
Do Only Women Have Estrogen
Dominance?
Absolutely not. It's also very common - and
dangerous -in men, and now young boys as well as young girls are
experiencing it as well.
Can
Post-Menopausal Women Have Estrogen
Dominance?
In a word, yes,
absolutely. A woman levels of estrogen can drop and she can still be
estrogen dominant. That's because her levels of estrogen may still be
too high in relation to her progesterone levels. This is also true for
women who are young enough to be cycling but have had hysterectomies.
Typically her estrogen levels drop, but since her progesterone levels
drop even further, she is estrogen dominant. And, of course, the
standard practice of prescribing pharmaceutical estrogen replacement
only makes it worse.
What About Balancing Estrogen with Progesterone
Supplementation?
Suppose your
own self-test (above), a laboratory saliva test, blood test or muscle
test reveals that your estrogen levels in relation to progesterone are
too high. Does that mean you
should immediately take progesterone to balance
it? In a word,no! Rather than rushing out and rubbing
progesterone cream all over your body, instead ferret out its
root cause and change what is causing it (see
below).
What To
Do
1.
Eat organic food whenever
possible. When you do, you benefit yourself, plus you
support organic production which provides a toxic-free environment for
farm workers, consumers, and wildlife. It also promotes and helps
sustain biological diversity. Why?
Non-organically grown fruits,
vegetables or foods contain pesticides, and these are estrogen mimics
(called xenoestrogens) - substances that fool the body cells into
thinking they're being ordered to 'grow'. Remember that
non-organic, non range fed steers and cows are fed estrogen to increase
their weight, and feed lot chicken are fed with food containing
pesticides and hormones that force them to become mature (i.e.,
market-ready) in six weeks instead of four months.
2.
If you have period cramping
symptoms associated with estrogen dominance, use in
combination the nutritional supplements Calcium Lactate, Black Currant Seed Oil,
Magnesium Lactate. You will likely also benefit from anti-inflammatory
herbs such as Boswellia, Celery Seed, Ginger or Turmeric, all of which
are helpful in the short term.
3.
Clean your liver and keep it
clean. To reverse
estrogen dominance, it is absolutely essential to do both. The most
effective supplement for this in my clinical experience has been
Garlic. How much? In my office we often use Garlic 5000, a MediHerb
supplement, each tablet of which contains the same amount of garlic
as an entire bulb of garlic. (No, that's not a typo - a whole
bulb, not just one of the cloves.) And depending on how toxic the
person's liver is, we may use 3 a day.
4.
Stop consuming foods to which you are
intolerant. In my clinical
experience, these are the primary cause of a liver that's too overwhelmed
to break down estrogen at a sufficient rate to prevent estrogen from
building up.
5.
Eliminate
refined starches and sugars from your diet. because they are
converted to fats which are in turn converted to
estrogen.
6.
Burn as many calories as you
consume, which means that if you've consumed excessive
calories, you need to increase your activity level to burn them off or
reduce your consumption. People who are overweight have
higher levels of estrogen than thin people.
7.
Reverse
dietary deficiencies such
as low protein intake, low fat intake, or problems absorbing the
protein or fats you eat. Each of
these impairs the
functioning of your gonads and also your mitochondria (the little rods in cells that are
responsible for energy production).
8.
Manage your
stress. Whether due to physical, emotional, chemical or environmental
factors, stress weakens your adrenal glands, making it difficult for
them to assist with sex hormone production and also to take it over
during your menopausal shift (for women) or your andropause shift (for
men.)
9. Avoid purchasing
carpets that outgas. Christi Graham, Founder and President of
Healthy Home Plans, reports that there are as many as 120 neurotoxic
chemicals in a typical sample of carpet. "Toxic chemicals can be found
in the fiber bonding material, dyes, backing glues, fire retardants,
latex binder, fungicides, and anti static and stain resistant
treatments. A list of these include: formaldehyde, toluene, xylene, the
potent carcinogen benzene and a long chain of any other tongue
twisters."
10.
Avoid breathing air containing crop
sprays. Leave for the day if you can, or if you can't, close
your doors and windows and turn on the air conditioner, then clean the
filter afterwards. Then join your friends and neighbors to engage
in political action to stop pesticide crop spraying
altogether.
11. If
you have taken birth control pills for a long time or your mother took
DES when you were in utero, get competent professional guidance to
support you in ridding your body cells of the
estrogen.
